Minorities Become Majority in More Metro Areas

Non-whites and Hispanics were responsible for 98 percent of the population growth in metropolitan areas from 2000 to 2010. Of the 100 largest metropolitan areas, 42 lost white population and 22 are now “majority minority,” a study of census data by the Brookings Institution shows.

The study, “The New Metro Minority Map: Regional Shifts in Hispanics, Asians, and Blacks from Census 2010 by William Frey, also shows that smaller metropolitan areas and areas outside of metropolitan regions continue to be “overwhelming white.”

New to the list of cities designated majority minority are metropolitan New York, Washington, D.C., San Diego, Las Vegas, and Memphis.
“Overall, most of these ‘majority minority’ metro areas are located in California and Texas, where Hispanics dominate the minority population,” the study reported.

“The more recent spread to other parts of the South and the Eastern seaboard could ‘tip’ Atlanta and Orlando, as well as Dallas, to metropolitan majority-minority populations before the next census. Metropolitan Chicago, at 55 percent white in 2010, could very well experience a similar result.”

Other findings include:

Almost half of Hispanics live in just 10 large metropolitan areas and 29 of the 100 largest metro areas more than doubled their Hispanic populations.

One-thirds of Asians are living in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

Areas of the South account for three-quarters of the growth in the black population with Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston leading all other metro areas in gain. For the first time, the black population dropped in the New York, Chicago and Detroit areas.

Neighborhood segregation held steady for Hispanics and Asians but declined for blacks. The study found that older and northern metropolitan areas continue to register the highest segregation levels for minority groups and that blacks remain more residentially segregated than either Hispanics or Asians.

Non-whites and Hispanics were responsible for 98 percent of the population growth in metropolitan areas from 2000 to 2010. Of the 100 largest metropolitan areas, 42 lost white population and 22 are now majority minority, a study of census data by the Brookings Institution...